Alexander Bogomazov

Composition No. 2

Bogomazov attempted to capture forms in motion by blurring or overlapping and repeating images in the manner of multiple-exposure photography. The broken forms of cubism and the splintered light of neo-impressionism heavily influenced Bogomazov while he executed Composition N2. In its early forms, Composition N2 is a futurist painting that adopted the techniques of divisionism, which was commonly used by the great Italian futurists, such as Umberto Boccioni, in which light and color are fragmented into individual dots and stipples. There is a frontal nature to the composition and a certain conventionality in the image in which everything is subordinate to a single internal rhythm. Instead of creating a puzzle-like work, Bogomazov uses flattened and geometric individual details to build up this picture of life.

Composition N2 is unique in the very depth of its essence. It is laconic and severe, but unusually expressive, a feature that distinguishes Bogomazov’s finest works. The background is composed of a rhythmic combination of colored blotches against which the monumental silhouette, with Bogomazov’s characteristic painting made up of bright yellow, indigo blue, and grayish pink tones, and his obligatory deep red-orange accents; in this case, they give the composition a dramatically ornamentation, on the one hand, and an artistic and meaningful completeness, on the other.